NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Actuals: 'The Revenant' Leads with $16.0M; 'Dirty Grandpa' ($11.1M), 'The Boy' ($10.8M) and 'The 5th Wave' ($10.3M) All Open Modestly

By Daniel Garris

After finishing in a close second place each of the past two weekends, Fox's The Revenant moved into first place this weekend with $16.01 million. The Alejandro González Iñárritu directed western starring Leonardo DiCaprio was down a sizable 50 percent from last weekend, as the box office in general was slowed by Winter Storm Jonas hitting the East Coast. Today's NFL Conference Championship Games are also expected to negatively impact Sunday's grosses as well. Even with this week's slowing, The Revenant continues to impress with $119.20 million after 17 days of wide release (and an additional two weeks of platform release). The film is currently running 24.5 percent ahead of the $95.75 million 17-day gross of 2010's Shutter Island (which fell 42 percent in its third weekend to take in $13.23 million). The Revenant is likely to stabilize next weekend thanks in part to healthy word of mouth and the continued buzz around the film's 12 Academy Award nominations.

Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens was up one spot from last weekend to claim second place with $14.08 million. The seventh chapter of the Star Wars franchise was down 47 percent from last weekend. Without adjusting for ticket price inflation, The Force Awakens claimed the tenth largest sixth weekend gross on record. The Force Awakens continues to pad its total as the highest grossing film of all-time domestically with $879.11 million through 38 days of release. That leaves the film just $20.89 million away from becoming the first ever the reach the $900 million domestic mark. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently running 59 percent ahead of the $551.74 million 38-day take of 2009's Avatar and 44 percent ahead of the $611.23 million 38-day gross of last year's Jurassic World.

Universal's Ride Along 2 was down two spots and a sharp 65 percent from last weekend to land in third with $12.46 million. The PG-13 rated comedy sequel starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart held up much worse in its second weekend than 2014's Ride Along, which declined 49 percent to take in $21.30 million. Clearly word of mouth isn't as strong for Ride Along 2 as it was for Ride Along, though this weekend's winter storm obviously had an effect on this weekend's hold as well. Ride Along 2 has grossed $58.61 million in ten days. While that's solid with the film's price tag in mind, it's below expectations and places the film 22 percent behind the $75.54 million ten-day start of Ride Along.

As had been expected, this weekend's three new wide releases were fairly bunched together with one another. Only $785,519 separated the top opener (Dirty Grandpa) from the lowest opener (The 5th Wave).

Dirty Grandpa opened in fourth place with $11.11 million. The R-rated comedy from Lionsgate starring Robert De Niro and Zac Efron performed towards the lower end of pre-release expectations. Dirty Grandpa opened 32 percent below the $16.33 million start of 2013's Last Vegas and going forward is unlikely to hold up as well as that film did. Poor critical reviews and Sunday's NFL Conference Championship Games (as well as more natural back-loading) appear to have had more of an effect on Dirty Grandpa this weekend than they did on The Boy and The 5th Wave.

Dirty Grandpa opened with $4.30 million on Friday (which included an estimated $660,000 from Thursday night shows), was up 4 percent on Saturday to take in $4.47 million and decline 47.5 percent on Sunday to gross $2.35 million. That gave the film an opening weekend to Friday ratio of 2.59 to 1. Dirty Grandpa received a respectable B rating on CinemaScore, which suggests that the film is going over better with moviegoers than it has with critics. At the same time, the film's 52 percent audience score on Flixster is a concerning early sign going forward.

STX Entertainment's The Boy debuted in fifth place with $10.78 million. The low-budget PG-13 rated horror film starring Lauren Cohan opened towards the lower end of expectations and was off to a solid start with its reported $10 million production budget in mind. The Boy opened 15 percent below the recent $12.74 million start of Focus' The Forest and was at a bit of a disadvantage as a result of arriving in the marketplace just two weeks after The Forest.

The Boy held up well throughout the weekend, especially with its genre and the weekend weather in mind. The film opened with $3.82 million on Friday (which didn't include any Thursday night shows), increased 20 percent on Saturday to take in $4.57 million and fell 48 percent on Sunday to gross $2.39 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.82 to 1. The Boy received a B- rating on CinemaScore, which is respectable with the film's genre in mind, but also has a lackluster current audience score of 52 percent on Flixster.

Sony's The 5th Wave was off to a sixth place start of $10.33 million. The young adult adaptation starring Chloë Grace Moretz also opened towards the lower end of expectations. The 5th Wave debuted 34 percent below the $15.68 million start of 2014's If I Stay. The 5th Wave started with $3.49 million on Friday (which included an estimated $475,000 from Thursday night shows), was up a healthy 25 percent on Saturday to take in $4.36 million and fell 43 percent on Sunday to gross $2.48 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.96 to 1. The 5th Wave received a modest B- rating on CinemaScore and currently has a soft audience score of 51 percent on Flixster. It should be noted that the film is performing stronger overseas than it is domestically.

Meanwhile, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi followed in seventh place with $9.03 million. The Michael Bay directed action thriller from Paramount was down a respectable 44 percent from last weekend, which represented one of the weekend's better holds among wide releases. 13 Hours was helped out this weekend by healthy word of mouth and by expanding into 528 additional locations (which included an expansion into Canada). 13 Hours has grossed $32.76 million in ten days. That is a bit below expectations and places the film 27 percent behind the $45.11 million ten-day take of 2012's Act of Valor (which fell 44.5 percent in its second weekend to gross $13.57 million).